How did anyone manage to escape from the Nazi death camps or the killing fields of Cambodia? Great Escapes presents gripping accounts of narrow escapes to illuminate historical events from a distinct, personal perspective. Here are the brave individuals caught in history's worst atrocities-and their amazing will to survive. David Bol, one of Sudan's many "lost boys," tells of his four-month trek across Ethiopia to a refugee camp during a horrific civil war. William Wells Brown depended on the station masters on the Underground Railroad to help him escape to the North and to freedom from slavery. Jewish prisoners Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler smuggled out proof of Nazi extermination practices, outrunning German bullets to "tell everyone about Auschwitz." Primary sources add drama to each compelling narrative while the text addresses the broader significance of the event, the social issues at stake, and how society continues to be affected.